


New Beginnings

by areyouarealmonster



Series: Oculus [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: F/M, GoldenVibe Week 2016, Oculus-verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-17
Updated: 2016-12-17
Packaged: 2018-09-09 04:23:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8875834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/areyouarealmonster/pseuds/areyouarealmonster
Summary: Lisa becomes a permanent fixture at S.T.A.R. Labs.





	

**Author's Note:**

> New Beginnings takes place after [Cisco's Guide to Enjoying the Holidays](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8788864), and between chapters [three](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7984681/chapters/18564307) and [five](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7984681/chapters/19056157) of [Oculus](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7984681).
> 
> It can stand on its own, but reading at least Cisco's Guide to Enjoying the Holidays is encouraged.

Lisa becomes a permanent fixture at S.T.A.R. Labs. Sure, she’s still got her own place, but she’s over at the lab more often than not, when she’s in town.

 

She’d be there with Lenny regardless, but she likes having the excuse of Cisco inviting her to things.

 

After they sleep together on Christmas, Cisco asks her to movie night every night, instead of just most nights. He brings her coffee when she stays late at the lab to keep an eye on Lenny and he makes sure she remembers to eat dinner. He texts her when she’s out of town, on a route.

 

Lisa doesn’t always get the texts right away, she definitely doesn’t want to text while driving a truck, but she gets them at rest stops and they make her smile. She calls to chat, sometimes, when she’s bored. She likes hearing Cisco’s voice through the speaker. It’s a nice break from the books on tape she takes out from the library.

 

Lenny gave her a bunch of audiobooks, before he left. She got through them in a few months, and then she couldn’t go back to listening to music. So now she listens to books about princesses befriending dragons, about badass women in space armor fighting aliens, about sweeping epics and other worlds. She can’t help being kind of a nerd; Lenny brought her up on Star Wars and Star Trek and comic books. She loves all that stuff.

 

Cisco’s excited when he finds out about her nerdy side. It’s the middle of the night, and Lisa feels her eyes threatening to close, so she calls Cisco. It’s the first time she’s called him, for a reason other than, “hey, how’s Lenny doing?” Normally she’d stop and take a nap, but the company wants her to finish the job within a ridiculous time limit, so she keeps her foot on the pedal and relies on Cisco to keep her entertained and awake.

 

He’s not even mad that she woke him up in the middle of the night (she’s not actually sure he was even sleeping in the first place, but she still feels a rush of gratitude). Cisco gets so excited when she tells him about what she was listening to on tape, one of the badass women in space books, and they start talking about all the movies they grew up on, all the characters they loved, the plots that kept them on the edge of their seats.

 

It’s so easy, talking to Cisco. There’s quiet sometimes, but it’s almost never awkward. The conversation flows naturally, and Lisa loves it. Cisco really listens to her; he doesn’t talk over her, he doesn’t cut her off, and he actively participates in the discussion. She knew he was smart, but she didn’t realize how passionate he is, how excitable he can be. He throws himself into everything with reckless abandon, and she sees herself in that. They have different walks of life, but their passion for the things they love to do lines up perfectly.

 

So when Lisa is in town, she barely leaves Cisco’s side, except when she’s with Lenny. But her brother sleeps a lot, so Cisco takes her to his favorite places, and she takes him to hers. They usually go back to Cisco’s apartment, or Lisa’s apartment, after, ending the night curled up around each other, sated and content.

 

And, damn, Cisco is amazing in bed. He makes it all about her—about her experience, about her orgasm. He’s still as attentive as he was on that first night, on Christmas, and he gets even better as he learns what she likes. Lisa comes screaming his name more times than she’d like to admit, and definitely more times than she has with any of her previous partners.

 

It doesn’t hurt that, at a month or so in, Cisco’s lasted longer than anyone she’s dated in the past. Lisa usually gets bored with someone around week two. Not with Cisco, though. There’s always something to learn about him, some new activity that he comes up with for them to do.

 

When he tells her that he asked Lenny if it was okay to date her, Lisa just laughs at him. “That’s a very roundabout way to ask me to be your girlfriend, Cisco.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” Cisco replies, looking slightly abashed. “I just didn’t want your brother to murder me.”

 

“Oh, Lenny wouldn’t do that…I mean, he might freeze your dick off, but he wouldn’t _murder_ you.” Lisa laughs again when Cisco realizes she’s teasing him. Lenny actually likes Cisco, more than anyone else she’s ever dated. Cisco doesn’t believe her when she tells him that, but it’s true.

 

It’s a fitting way to start dating, for the two of them. They’ve always danced around each other, ever since they first met.

 

Lisa feels safe, though, with Cisco. Not just when she’s wrapped up in his arms, not just when she’s lying beside him, not just when his fingers tangle with hers. Always. She feels free. Cisco lets her be herself, and he tries not to judge her about anything.

 

He doesn’t let her walk all over him, either. She tries, the first week or so that they’re actually together. She attempts to steamroll over him about some thing or another and he just calmly says, “No, Lisa,” and moves on.

 

Lisa’s enamored.

 

She’s never been in love before, and she’s pretty sure it’s too soon to really know, but she thinks she might be in love with Cisco. Not that she knows what romantic love feels like. But, if she had to guess, from all she’s heard or read, it would feel a lot like this. The drop in the pit of her stomach when he smiles at her. The tingle that runs up her arm when he takes her hand. The stars in her eyes when he makes her come for the third time in an hour.

 

—

 

“Why gold?” he asks, one night, as they’re sitting on his couch and the credits roll at the end of their Star Wars movie marathon (4-7, obviously).

 

“It’s pretty,” Lisa responds, as if the answer is obvious.

 

“You said pretty _and_ toxic, though, when I made you your gun. I guess I wanna know why you think you’re toxic.”

 

Lisa shifts, jostling the arm he’s got wrapped around her shoulders. “Cisco, I know Lenny’s mostly reformed, but I’m still a criminal. I steal things. I rob people. I hurt them.” She tries to say it lightly, but she knows every word hurts Cisco a little more.

 

They don’t talk about what she does when she disappears for a few days. What she’s done when she returns with her pockets a little heavier, metaphorically of course, and maybe a cut or a bruise. He doesn’t want to know, and she doesn’t want to see the look on his face if she told him.

 

“You don’t have to steal, though. You’re good at things!” Cisco says, after a few minutes of quiet, watching the credits roll by.

 

“What kind of things?” Lisa’s only good at being a criminal. She’s never known anything else. 

 

“You’re smart, you’re good with your hands—”

 

“You know it.” Lisa smirks at him.

 

“I don’t mean like that.” Cisco looks fondly exasperated, and Lisa’s smirk turns into a lopsided smile.

 

“I know, Cisco.”

 

“I just meant that, like your brother, you’re good at fixing things. You maintain your gold gun very well, and I’ve seen you fix little things with barely a thought. You’ve got mad skills, girl. There’s so much you could be doing.” Cisco sounds enthusiastic but Lisa just can’t imagine being anything else.

 

“Like what? There’s nothing as thrilling as pulling off a job. The adrenaline, the knowledge that you’ve bested someone…it’s a rush.”

 

“I don’t know, Lisa, but there has to be something.”

 

They’re quiet for another minute, then. It always gets a little weird when they skirt around Lisa’s criminal activities.

 

Cisco finally breaks the silence. “Is there anything you’d want to try? To see if you like it?”

 

“In bed?” Lisa’s not quite as good at deflecting as Lenny, but she’s pretty damn good at it when she wants to be.

 

“Lisa…” Cisco sounds tired, so Lisa tries to be serious, tries to stop skirting the issue.

 

“I don’t know.” She thinks about it, but she has no frame of reference. “This is all I know, Cisco. I drive a truck, I steal things. I take care of my brother, he takes care of me. That’s been my life for so long.”

 

“This might sound weird, but have you ever thought about jewelry making?” Lisa laughs at him, but Cisco keeps going, “Really, Lisa. I meant it when I said you’re good with your hands. You like gold, precious metals, jewels, things like that. I found a class, we could check it out?”

 

“I don’t know about the jewelry making, Cisco, but I’m in if I get to spend time with you, so it’s a date.”

 

So they go on this date. Lisa loves it.

 

There’s welding and heating up metals and molding them to fit the shape that _she_ wants them to be. Everything’s bright and sparkly, and the materials flow between her fingers, between her tools, and she falls in love, again.

 

She starts off with simple rings, simple designs, but sooner than her teacher expected, Lisa’s pouring her own molds, creating her own designs, and, to Lisa’s complete surprise, selling her wares. Another student asks to buy one of the pieces she makes. The instructor of the class asks Lisa if she wants to sell through the studio after that.

 

Lisa figures out how to work in hidden latches. She puts tiny knives in her rings, small pouches for secreting things away in her bracelets, a panic button in her necklaces. She works with Cisco on the technology for that last one, hooks it up to a bluetooth device so people who buy it can connect it to their phones, to call a specific person if they’re in danger.

 

So, Lisa’s a jewelry designer now. She makes enough money to quit her trucking job. Jewelry is expensive, and she knows from personal experience that women will pay more for anything that enables them to sneak more self-defensive objects into daily life. Especially if that thing is also pretty.

 

It seems Cisco was right, about her. There is more to Lisa Snart than her criminal past. She is capable of so much more, so many other things. She doesn’t think she’s gonna turn into a superhero like her brother seems on the way to becoming, but she can channel her energy into other things, into helping people in her own, unique way.

 

And she’s happy. It’s nice to be surrounded by love. Lisa’s only had her brother’s love in the past, but now? Now there’s a whole family around her. There’s some awkward adjusting, of course. But Cisco and Iris champion for her with everyone else, and finally Lisa becomes part of the group.

 

Part of Team Flash.

 

Part of the family.

 

She doesn’t know how she got here but she’s so glad she did.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for beta-ing, Becca!


End file.
